silly scientists

it's always so quaint to hear how they waste their time, with their so-called "experiments" and their toys, when they really needn't ever bother ...

... then someone in florence, italy tried to pump water from a deep well, but couldn't do it. they discovered that no suction pump could raise water higher than 32 feet. galileo noticed this and suggested that his pupil, torricelli, investigate it. well, the young scientist thought a long time about it and finally decided to use mercury for his experiment. since it was 13 times heavier than water, he calculated that if atmospheric pressure really existed, the mercury would rise about 30 inches in a glass tube from which the air had been expelled. well, filling a 4 foot glass tube of mercury, then inverting it in a half-filled flask, torricelli removed his thumb from the tube. with mounting excitement he watches the mercury fell from the tube, then after a few oscillations caused by momentum, the column settled at a height between ... guess how much ... ? 29 and 30 inches. yet, if men had only noticed carefully a passage from job, they would've already known that air has weight. you mean the bible talks about it? of course! [chuckling] job, the 28th chapter, beginning with verse 23: 23god understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. 24for he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; 25to make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. there it is! what a mighty creator god we have, friend. — h.m.s. richards, jr., the voice of prophecy